The Ontario Junior Hockey League is expected to make it official today after more than two-thirds of league member teams electronically voted in favour of thePort Hope Predators move to Trenton Wednesday and Thursday. Of the 27 votes tallied as of press time all were in favour of the move, while the final eight votes are expected to be in by 9 p.m. tonight.

Team officials are expected to hold a formal press conference Thursday, April 2 at Quinte West city hall in Trenton to make an announcement and unveil the team's new name and logo.

Members of the OJHL management board and executive committee recommended the Predators move to Trenton with full support of all acting members.

The only remaining hurdle is approval from the Ontario Hockey Association.

League commissioner Bob Hooper said that may only be a formality.

"The move is a good for Quinte West and good for the league,'' said Hooper. "The league never really wanted a team in Port Hope in the first place."

During a month's worth of negotiations with Quinte West, the Predators hammered out a contract that would guarantee the team ice time and other facilities inside Trenton Community Gardens for the 2009/2010 season.

As for the league-wide vote, Predators director of hockey operations Tim Clayden said team management believed they had the majority support of "our league partners.''

"The only team that I know could vote against moving the franchise is the Wellington Dukes," said Clayden. "They feel the move would restrict the Dukes from signing Quinte region players. I don't feel that would be the case. Any way you look at it the Dukes are always one of the top teams in the league. Our goal is to work with the Dukes.''

League officials met for five-hours Tuesday in what was described as raucous debate over the future of the Central Division experiment.

League board of governors are looking a modified version to the Central Division by splitting the league into two conferences - unofficially the Provincial and Ontario conferences.

If approved, the Central Division, said Hooper, would be run on a modified version as the current Central Division pilot project.

But Hooper said the two conference league is only a proposal.

"Nothing has been written in stone yet,'' he said. "And to be honest I don't know if we are any further along in hammering the issue out. I am hopeful we will have a final decision in the coming weeks."